Portugal’s minister for defence João Gomes Cravinho, on Wednesday estimated that around 60 Portuguese soldiers from the contingent of special forces trainers are going to be deployed in April to Mozambique to help the country in the fight against terrorism..

“We are going to deploy trainers – to train marines and commandos. They are military personnel with special forces expertise – I believe in the order of 60. It (the number of troops) has not yet been set because there is still planning work underway with the Mozambican authorities,” Gomes Cravinho said in an interview with Lusa.

The Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado has been under attack since October 2017 by groups of insurgents linked to radical Islamic organisations, and classified since the beginning of 2020 by Mozambican and international authorities as a “terrorist threat”.

“They will, in principle, go to different places – in the south of the country, near Maputo, and in the centre, but that is still not entirely decided,” Cravinho added.

Asked about the changes to the framework programme for technical-military cooperation with Mozambique, which is due to take effect over the next three years, Cravinho said that what is planned is an intensification of cooperation with this country, following the current context of threats.

Technical-military cooperation between Portugal and Mozambique has existed since 1988.

Source: Lusa